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Close back protruded vowel

The close back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨u⟩, which is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicated IPA diacritic for protrusion, the symbol for the close back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨ ?⟩, can be used as an ad hoc symbol ⟨u?⟩. Another possible transcription is ⟨u?⟩ or ⟨⟩ (a close back vowel modified by endolabialization), but that could be misread as a diphthong.

Features

Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.

Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.

Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Possible realization of the unstressed vowel /?/, which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid.[31][32] Corresponds to /?l/ in other accents. See New Zealand English phonology

Close back compressed vowel

Some languages, such as Japanese and Swedish, have a close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial.[72] Only Shanghainese is known to contrast it with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.[12]

There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨⟩ as ⟨?⟩ (simultaneous [?] and labial compression) or ⟨⟩ ([?] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨ ? ⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨u?⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.

Features

Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.

Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.

Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips are tense and drawn together in such a way that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140-142, ISBN978-0-521-63751-0

Landau, Ernestina; Lon?ari?a, Mijo; Horga, Damir; ?kari?, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66-69, ISBN978-0-521-65236-0

Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association, Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117-119, ISBN978-0-52163751-0

Zee, Eric (1999), "Chinese (Hong Kong Cantonese)", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 58-60, ISBN978-0-521-65236-0

Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish"(PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154-158, ISBN978-0-521-65236-0